Urban Battle: Main Square: Trial Version
by
Forsage Games
Forsage Games is a European game maker based in Belgrade, Serbia. This is some information about the company:
"Forsage Games was founded in 2004 by game designer Predrag Lazovic. Predrag created his first game in the 1992-94 period. The game was finally published in 1996 in Serbia under the name “Saratoga” as a part of a set with two of his more simple games. In the following years, several publishers from Serbia published a dozen of Predrag's games. Among them were games of various types and for different audiences: family games, children’s games, warfare and sports simulations, etc.
From 2004 all games were published by Forsage company or in collaboration with other publishers. Until today over 60 games have been published. They have been produced according to local standards because their primary markets are Serbia and the region. Since 2013 Forsage Games has been producing games by European and American standards.
Besides Predrag, on the creation of some of the games collaborated Stefan Kovljanin, Wojka Ketvok, and Dragan Lazovic. Stefan is the co-author of several games: Airtrace, Football, Basketball, Tennis, etc. Wojka was the lead designer for several family and children's games, such as Pretty girl and Pony express. In recent years, all the games have been radically improved in terms of rules and design and Dragan Lazovic gets the most credit for that.
Recently, our company has had a breakthrough in the global market, thanks to multiple successful Kickstarter campaigns. Games that have had their campaigns, as well as some others, are successfully being sold all over the world. We cooperate with several companies from Japan, the USA, China, France, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, etc., which sell our games in larger or smaller quantities in their home countries. In the future, Forsage Games will prepare many more projects for Kickstarter and international market."
I first read about Forsage Games and their Age of Dogfights WWI. Reading about this game led me to getting in touch with them. When I contacted them, they also wanted me to review their Tank Chess game (the link is below). If you look at Tank Chess you can see the family DNA that led to the creation of Urban Battle. If you read the history of Tank Chess you will see that the designer has been working on this same game since the 1990s. Not that there was anything wrong with the earlier designed games. He just wanted to keep tweaking and working on the idea in his head that has led to Urban Battle. Sort of the way that Leonardo kept the Mona Lisa with him to look at it and to work on it further. Although you can see where Tank Chess has led us to Urban Battle, you should not think that it is a simple cash grab with a new name and few new rules. Far from it. This is what Forsage Games has to say about the game:
"Urban Battles is a game whose concept goes back to Panzer Strike: France 1940 and later Tank Chess. Each playing piece represents an individual tank or armored unit. Set up takes no more than 1-3 minutes and is scenario dependent.
Urban Battles is designed for two players. The goal of the game is determined by each Mission, provided in the Brochure. Each Mission has several game setups.
Three modes of play are offered for the gamers tastes:
Basic Mode – a relaxed and fluid game with the influence of luck via dice
Absolute Mode – no dice with a greater tactical and strategic feel to gameplay
Realistic Mode – the game now drills down to realistic firing angles via more detailed lines of sight requiring a ruler or some type of straight edge."
This is what comes with the game:
One small map - 25 1/4" X 9 1/2+"
One large map - 25 1/4" X 18 3/4"
100 molded plastic vehicles or 3D printed with moving turrets ( 19 different types)
Rulebook
Mission Booklet
Flags and Antennas
3 Die
Activation Markers
2 Player Aid Cards
The game consists of two pieces of mounted map. The larger is twice the size of the smaller. So, if you wanted you could just use the smaller map for quicker battles and the larger map piece for a longer and more detailed battle. Using both of these together gives you as large an area as most wargame maps do. The map is a top down view of exactly what the box says, an urban area to fight over. The preproduction version that I was sent contains two different kinds of game pieces. The first is the less expensive molded plastic vehicles. However, these are very well done and you can easily see the type of vehicle it is and there does not appear to be any flashing that I could find. The second option is of 3D printed plastic pieces. These are slightly larger than the less expensive kind. They also have rotating turrets for the actual tanks. This is just a few of the pieces that both sides have:
Reconnaissance Vehicle
Ligh/Medium/Heavy Tank
Super-Heavy Tank
Assault Gun
Tank Hunter
Light/Heavy SP Howitzer
Heavy SP Mortar (think SturmTiger)
SP Rocket Launcher
Amphibious Tank
Armored Recovery Vehicle
Half-Track
The game comes with two light card stock Player Aids. These have everything that the player needs for his foray into the game. These list the following for each type of piece:
Armor
Speed
Effectiveness/Worth
Firepower - in all three game modes
Weapon Mount Turret/Hull - for facing rules
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| Flags and stands |
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| Die and gaming accessories |
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| Vehicles |
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| Player Aid |
The Rulebook that I was sent is ten pages long. It is in full color and has play examples on each page (please remember this was a preproduction game I was sent). It gives the rules for all three modes of play. The next booklet is really a list of different missions for the game. It is nine pages long and the illustrations are in black & white (this will probably change). There are ten different missions. However, The missions have at least two different versions, some have four, of the setup and play of that mission.
For a preproduction game I am very impressed. Most of the game's pieces and the booklets were all built by the designers at home. Going by their other games I would assume that they will be of high quality.
The game has been designed from the ground up to be two different things. The first is to be an introductory wargame to help entice fledgling grognards. The second was to add to the game to make it a good fit for tyros and for grognards by adding to the rules etc. I believe that Forsage Games has succeeded in both areas. While it masquerades as just a beer and pretzel game, it actually allows the player to grow from a new wargamer to a more advanced one by just acquiring one game. Will Urban Battle make you ready for four maps and 2000 counters? Absolutely not, but it can take the newbie by the hand and lead him down the slippery slope of wargaming. Thank you Forsage Games for allowing me to kick the tires on Urban Battle. I find it an excellent game to bring someone into the fold.
I will also have a review of Forsage Games Age of Dogfights WWII coming up.
Robert Peterson
Urban Battle: Main Square
My review of Age of Dogfights WWI by Forsage Games:
Age of Dogfights: WWI by Forsage Games - A Wargamers Needful Things
My review of Tank Chess by Forsage Games:
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